Pancreatic islets of Langerhans are the only organ of insulin production in the body. However, they have a limited capacity for regeneration. This limited regeneration capacity predisposes mammals to develop diabetes mellitus. Thus there is a need in the art of endocrinology for products which can stimulate the regeneration of islets of Langerhans to prevent or ameliorate the symptoms of diabetes mellitus.
One model of pancreatic islet cell regeneration involves cellophane-wrapping of the pancreas in the Syrian golden hamster (1). Wrapping of the pancreas induces the formation of new endocrine cells which appear to arise from duct epithelium (2-4). There is a need in the art to identify and isolate the factor(s) which is responsible for islet cell regeneration.